Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony [Hardcover]

Jennifer Wynn (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0312261799 | ISBN-13: 978-0312261795 | Publication Date: July 25, 2001 | Edition: First Edition

Part memoir, part social commentary, Inside Rikers details the author's experiences on Rikers--the largest, most expensive correctional facility in the world. Wynn offers a compelling portrait of its 18,000 inmates and how Rikers was transformed from one of the most violent jails into one of the safest.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Rikers Island penal colony is a world unto itself, with its own power plant, schools, hospital, even a tailor. But the 16,000 people forced to live there, unlike free worlders, are "usually known by their single worst deed." So writes Jennifer Wynn, who has spent the last decade getting beyond those deeds and helping inmates turn their untapped talents into new lives. Wynn first entered Rikers Island as a reporter, returned to teach in a rehabilitation program called Fresh Start, and ultimately became the program's director. Though she has left journalism as a career, this powerful debut puts her in the best tradition of activist journalism. Unlike most criminologists, she understands that the best way to make a point is to show rather than tell. By interlacing statistics with moving stories of Rikers' inmates, she makes clear the arguments for prison--and social--reform.

Though compassionate, Wynn is also a realist who takes a measured approach to the challenges confronted by both inmates and correctional workers. She shares success stories--say, the guy who had been in and out of Rikers for eight years, but finally, with the help of Fresh Start, graduated from the New York Restaurant School--but she is also forthright about the failures. Two questions resound: How can New York City, home to some of the sharpest business minds in the country, spend $860 million a year on inmates and have 75 percent of them return to prison after release? On the flip side, one of her "failures" asks, "I live in the best ... country in the world and I keep asking myself, Why can't I make it?" Wynn is persuasive when she discusses why incarceration increases crime and deepens dependency, how income inequality affects crime, and why--the most bitter irony of all--for many inmates, living on the outside is even harder than jail. This humane examination of America's greatest social problem redefines what it is to be a free worlder and holds a torch to those who make their lives--whether by choice or by law--within its jails. --Lesley Reed

From Publishers Weekly

Wynn presents a penetrating exploration of inmates' lives in New York's "vast penal colony," Rikers Island. She directs the Correctional Association of New York's Prison Visiting Project at Rikers, a formidable, sprawling jail; there, she teaches writing and edits the Rikers Review. Wynn claims working at Rikers has turned her "from a dispassionate journalist into a... compassionate" advocate for prison reform. Her bright, optimistic style seems incongruous with the institutionalized darkness she depicts, however. Her deep commitment to viewing prisoners as the downtrodden among us is supported by the jail's own stark statistics, which indicate that most of the inmates are impoverished minority residents of the city's "dead zones," areas with the highest murder rates, and that many are stuck in the hard cycle of drug addiction and drug-related crime. Wynn uses firsthand narratives of prisoners she's worked with to illustrate the Kafka-esque difficulties convicts face on the road to rehabilitation. Her lively prose, with its refreshing lack of "street" pretensions and her emphasis on the forlorn dignity in humanity subjugated by large-scale imprisonment, make this an unusually stirring example of the "teacher in prison" subgenre and a worthwhile companion to books like Ted Conover's NBCC Award-winning Newjack and Joseph T. Hallinan's Going Up the River, released earlier this year. Her portrait of Rikers as a miniature, punitive Gotham is colorful and complex; moreover, it forces us to acknowledge the inequalities and intricacies of life behind bars, which those ex-convicts continue to face once they step off this island, headed for either prison upstate or to freedom. Agent, Noah Lukeman.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 25, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312261799
• ISBN-13: 978-0312261795
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,658,346 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside Rikers - A Roller Coaster Ride, December 28, 2003

By 

Richard R. Blake - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony (Hardcover)

In the book, Inside Rikers, the author combines statistics with insightful stories of inmates she met while inside Rikers Prison. The stories of inmates are highlighted with social commentary and emphasize the need for social and prison reform.

A compassionate advocate for prison reform Wynn writes from the perspective of her experience while teaching at Rikers Prison and while visiting the homes and neighborhoods of the inmates, whose stories she tells. These stories are well written and come across as genuine.

The roller coaster ride of those caught up in the drug cycle, poverty, crime, and arrest is oppressive and disturbing. I especially appreciated insight the author provided into the Methadone "Keep Program". This is only one area of great concern and needed investigation Wynn exposed. The success stories of those who were able to rise above the circumstances are both inspirational and encouraging.
Another insight I received was the tendency for a total lack of conscience experienced by the criminal mind.

I was sorry to come to end of the book. I was stirred to want to take action. I could only wish the author had given more specific suggestions for steps members of the community can take to accomplish some of the reform needs she advocates. The extensive bibliography at the end of the book may be the starting place for finding this help.

I recommend this book to be read and reread by everyone in a position of influence that can affect high-risk neighborhoods and communities.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A View from the Inside (Inside Rikers), September 9, 2001

By 

Ray Houle (Terryville, CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony (Hardcover)

I don't know if you've seen the movie, "Traffic", starring Michael Douglas. What's so great about that film is that it gives an outsider an insider's appreciation of the problems of drugs entering America. It's a movie that changes attitudes. "Inside Rikers" is that kind of book. Jennifer Wynn gives the outsider an insider's appreciation of the problems of people in prison. She gives an intimate look at some of these people, enough to give the reader a new appreciation for the challenges that these prisoners face on both sides of the prison door. It's up-close-and-personal, a great read, and you'll be thinking about this one a long time after you finish reading it. At least that's been true for me. Highly recommended.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Inside Rikers, January 21, 2007

By 

E. J. Tolbert "bibliophile" (New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside Rikers: Stories from the World's Largest Penal Colony (Paperback)

Since I've read books written by Correction Officers, Inside Rikers was an enlightening view from the other side of the penal colony. The thinking and mindset of the case studies was an education in itself as well as the mentality of our justice system.